Vara

Vara or VARA may refer to:

People with the surname

Places

Films

Other uses

VARA

The Omroepvereniging VARA (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɔmrupfəˌreːnəɣɪŋ ˈvaːraː]), the VARA Broadcasting Association, is a Dutch public broadcasting association that operates within the framework of the Netherlands Public Broadcasting system.

The association was founded in 1925 as the Vereeniging van Arbeiders Radio Amateurs (Association of Worker Radio Amateurs). The name was changed to Omroepvereniging VARA in 1957 and is no longer an acronym.

VARA originally focused on labour and socialism. In the era of Dutch pillarization the association had close links to the Social Democratic Workers Party and its successor, the Labour Party. For many years VARA's chairmen, such as Marcel van Dam and Andre Kloos, were prominent members of the party. Although the connection between the two organizations loosened, affinities remain—such as a large overlap between their respective support bases.

VARA adopted its current logo in 2002.

Programming

Some VARA television programmes are:

Vara (river)

The Vara is a river of the Province of La Spezia in Liguria, north-west Italy.

Geography

The river runs through Varese Ligure, Brugnato, Borghetto di Vara and Castiglione di Vara. At 58 kilometres (36 mi) it is the longest river in Liguria. The main source of the river is on Monte Zatta; for much of its course it flows in a southeasterly direction, parallel to the Riviera di levante, in the valley which takes its name: the Val di Vara. The river flows into the Magra, as a right tributary, at Fornola within the commune of Santo Stefano di Magra.

History

The Département du Vara or Dipartimento del Vara of Ligurian Republic took its name at the end of the XVIII century from the river.

References

Coordinates: 44°09′N 9°53′E / 44.150°N 9.883°E / 44.150; 9.883 Media related to Vara River at Wikimedia Commons

Dungeon

A dungeon is a room or cell in which prisoners are held, especially underground. Dungeons are generally associated with medieval castles, though their association with torture probably belongs more to the Renaissance period. An oubliette is a form of dungeon which is accessible only from a hatch in a high ceiling.

Etymology

The word dungeon comes from Old French donjon (also spelled dongeon), which in its earliest usage meant a "keep", the main tower of a castle. The first recorded instance of the word in English was near the beginning of the 14th century when it held the same meaning as donjon. Though it is uncertain, both dungeon and donjon are thought to derive from the Middle Latin word dominio, meaning "lord" or "master".

In French, the term donjon still refers to a "keep", and the term oubliette is a more appropriate translation of English dungeon. Donjon is therefore a false friend to dungeon (for instance, the game Dungeons & Dragons is titled Donjons et Dragons in its French editions).

Dungeon!

Dungeon! is a 1975 adventure board game designed by David R. Megarry, Gary Gygax, Michael Gray, Steve Winter and S. Schwab, published by TSR, Inc.Dungeon! simulates some aspects of the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) role-playing game which was released the year before, although Megarry had a prototype of Dungeon! ready as early as 1972.

Dungeon! features a map of a simple six-level dungeon with hallways, rooms and chambers. Players move around the board seeking to defeat monsters and claim treasure. Greater treasures are located in deeper levels of the dungeon, along with tougher monsters. Players choose different character classes with different abilities. The object of the game is to be the first to return to the beginning chamber with a set value of treasure.

Original edition

David M. Ewalt, in his book Of Dice and Men, described Megarry's original edition of the game as "a Blackmoor-inspired board game that represented TSR's most ambitious production to date: a color game map, customized cards, tokens, dice, and a rules booklet all packaged in an attractive box".

Dungeon (magazine)

Dungeon Adventures, or simply Dungeon, was a magazine targeting consumers of role-playing games, particularly Dungeons & Dragons. It was first published by TSR, Inc. in 1986 as a bimonthly periodical. It went monthly in May 2003 and ceased print publication altogether in September 2007 with Issue 150. Starting in 2008, Dungeon and its more widely read sister publication, Dragon, went to an online-only format published by Wizards of the Coast. Both magazines went on hiatus at the end of 2013, with Dungeon Issue 221 being the last released.

Each issue featured a variety of self-contained, pre-scripted, play-tested game scenarios, often called "modules" (commonly referred to as "adventures" or "scenarios"). Dungeon Masters (DMs) could either enact these adventures with their respective player groups as written or adapt them to their own campaign settings. Dungeon aimed to save DMs time and effort in preparing game sessions for their players by providing a full complement of ideas, hooks, plots, adversaries, creatures, illustrations, maps, hand-outs, and character dialogue. It was a resource containing several modules per issue, significantly cheaper than standard-format modules.